CONWAY, S.C. –
Donovan Gregory tallied a career-high 20 points as App State men's basketball defeated Coastal Carolina for the second time in three days in overtime by an 84-76 score on Saturday afternoon.
Gregory's 20 points bettered his career-best of 19 points, set last season against Georgia Southern. He went a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line and added four assists and three steals in the win.
The two teams found themselves deadlocked at 64-64 late in the second half, before a dunk from
CJ Huntley broke the tie. Coastal Carolina (9-8, 1-4 SBC) responded with a trey, but App State (10-9, 4-2 SBC) came right back with another slam from Huntley to jump in front 68-67 with 1:44 to go. The Chanticleers took the lead with 43 seconds left on a pair of free throws from Vince Cole, but the Mountaineers used a pair of free throws from
Adrian Delph to jump in front 70-69 with 14 seconds remaining. Cole was fouled with six seconds left behind the 3-point line and earned three free throws, making only one to tie the game at 70-70. A 3-pointer by Delph as the horn sounded was no good sending the game to overtime.
In the extra session, both teams scored on each of their first two possessions.
Justin Forrest broke the 74-74 tie with a 3-pointer. App State then used a basket from
James Lewis Jr. and three free throws from
Michael Almonacy to cap an 8-0 run and take an 82-74 edge with 21 seconds remaining. The Chanticleers scored with 13 seconds left, but Lewis Jr. put an exclamation point on the victory with a slam in the final seconds.
App State broke an early 2-2 tie with an 8-0 run, getting five points from Delph along the way. Following a Chanticleer free throw, the Mountaineers used five more points from Delph to push their lead to 15-13. Coastal Carolina countered with a 9-0 run later in the half to pull within two points at 17-15 with 10:56 left in the opening frame. The Chanticleers tied the score at 21-21, but App State came right back with a 6-0 run to take a 27-21 lead. Coastal Carolina pulled within a point late in the half, but a layup from Gregory just before the buzzer gave the Mountaineers a 38-35 advantage at the half.
Delph paced App State with a game-high 25 points, while adding six rebounds and three assists. Lewis Jr. posted a double-double with 13 points and a career-high tying 14 rebounds (seven offensive). Forrest chipped in with 11 points, Almonacy had eight points and four assists and Huntley finished with seven points and five rebounds.
App State won the rebounding battle 38-34 and pulled down 17 offensive rebounds. The Mountaineers recorded 19 offensive rebounds in Thursday's win, giving them a total of 36 offensive boards in the two games against the Sun Belt's top rebounding team.
The Mountaineers dished out 15 assists and committed just three turnovers. In addition, the Black and Gold held a 18-9 edge in second chance scoring and 44-32 advantage in points in the paint.
Cole led the Chanticleers with 20 points, while Rudi Williams added 19 points off the bench.
The Mountaineers hit the road next weekend for a pair of games in Georgia, beginning with a 7 p.m. contest at Georgia State on ESPN+.
